


Specters and Snickerdoodles

by AlexSeanchai (EllieMurasaki)



Category: Hänsel und Gretel | Hansel and Gretel (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, Future Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 06:00:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6107269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Margarete woke, smelling gingerbread.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Specters and Snickerdoodles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [littlehuntress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlehuntress/gifts).



> Thank you to my lovely beta. You know who you are. :)

Margarete woke, smelling gingerbread.

As was her habit, she rose to check on the children. Heidi and Liese slept peacefully, Franzi and Gabi soundly, Käthe and Mia deeply, Lore lightly, but Ursel twitched in her slumber, as though caught in a nightmare.

"Ursel," Margarete called softly. "Ursel."

Across the room just big enough for two beds and chests of drawers, Lore stirred. "Aunt Gretel?" she asked.

"Sleep, Lore," said Margarete. "Ursel. Ursula, dear one." She did not like to touch the children without asking first, but Ursel could not be asked while she dreamed, and might not wake otherwise. Margarete laid a hand on Ursel's shoulder.

The girl startled awake. "Get _away_ from me, you sons of dogs—"

"Ursel," repeated Margarete. "It is I. I believe you were having a nightmare."

Surprised, Ursel looked around, then up at Margarete. "Oh," she said. "Aunt Gretel. I'm sorry."

"There is no need to apologize," Margarete said, as she had before. "The past haunts you, as it does us all, and likely always will. There is no shame nor blame in that. Your choice now, as always, is what to do about it."

Ursel glanced over to Lore. "Aunt Gretel, could you tell us the story about the witch in the gingerbread house?"

"Yes, Aunt Gretel, please?" said Lore.

_Let Hansel be fat or lean, tomorrow I will kill him, and cook him—_

But Hansel had not died that day—indeed, Johannes slept this very minute in his room on the boys' side of this orphanage, paid for with the pearls and jewels they had taken from the gingerbread witch's cottage—

Still.

"Not tonight, I think, dear ones," said Margarete briskly. "Shall I tell you of Cendrillon, while we bake snickerdoodles?"


End file.
